http://jezebel.com/5951157/women-who-choose-to-remain-childless-have-lots-of-money-hardly-a-care-in-the-world

Lysoland Tollhouse cookie commercials are losing their ability to pressure women to have children, since it'sbecoming quite obvious that childless womencan enjoy disinfecting their marinara sauced counters and getting blazed with a bucket of cookie dough, too. The results of a new study published in the October issue of The JournalofMarriage and Family suggest that, while, womenwho choose to remainchildfree in today's groovy world of contraception feelmore pressure to reproduce than other women without children, they aren't distressed about their placid lifestyle of going to weekend matinees, drinking at their leisure,and watching premium cable, probably because doing all of those things =wonderful.

Study author Julia McQuillan, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist, explained that, though motherhood inthe United Stateswasallknotted up with adult femininity,women have little to absolutely no qualmsabout choosing not to be mothers (womenwho didn't have children because of fertility issueswere, unsurprisingly,significantly more distressed about being childless). Said McQuillan:

Motherhood is so highly connected with adult femininity in the United States that many women feel that they need to be mothers. Yet we also found that there are women who have low or no distress about not being mothers,even if theirfriends and family want them to have children.

In order to figure out that childless-by-choice women weren't melting into puddlesof unused genetic materialintheir well-appointed and mercifully clean homes, McQuillan and her colleagues surveyed 1,200 Americanwomen without children about their reasonsfor staying baby-free. Among some of the most common reasons women had for forgoing motherhood were a simple desire not to have kids, financial concerns, education or career demands,or the absence of a suitable partner. It was only when womenthemselves viewed motherhood asimportant that pressure from family,friends, or the child-hungry media caused them any distress.

...